International Development.

In June, Google announced that it would open an Artificial Intelligence (AI) research center in Accra, Ghana later this year – one more sign of Africa’s vast untapped potential for AI innovation. But since developing countries will be hit hardest by manufacturing job losses caused by AI-fueled automation, Google must avoid “merely creating an African outpost for its pre-existing research efforts,” says Ghanaian entrepreneur Timothy Kotin. He explores the transformation impact that companies like Google could make if they invest in regional talent to develop locally relevant AI solutions.

The Western development system has largely been premised on the flow of knowledge and financing from the “Global North” to the “Global South” with the goal of assisting in driving economic development and poverty alleviation. Ironically, the expertise flowing from the “developed” world represents best practices from countries that have never been able to solve their own poverty.

In reality the extent to which the mobile phone can support and sustain real improvement in young lives is depressingly finite unless significant interventions occur – particularly in the education and technology sectors.

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